God is Calling

Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

During the month of June many of the priests of our diocese celebrate their anniversary of ordination. Next weekend we will only ordain one man (Deacon John Machiorlatti) for the Diocese of Lansing. And the following year there will be no ordinations in our diocese. My dear people, we need to know that this shortage of priests will continue for the foreseeable future. We will not be able to replace the priests who are retiring. In ten years our diocese will go from about 71 active priests to about 40. (In ten years God willing I will be 76.) You do not want a 76 year old pastor! We need to pray for more vocations to the priesthood. But we must also prepare for our laity to assume positions of authority in our future Church of Lansing. Even if you do not believe you have a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, you may have a vocation to serve the Church. What we are doing here in Flint as Church is what the rest of the diocese will have to consider. This coming year we will have a series of talks about the future of the Catholic Church in Flint. It will always be done in conjunction with a prayer service because if we don't pray then we have no future. I hope that you will keep a lookout for these "talks" and please let us pray.

May Mary Mother of Flint intercede for our Church of Flint.

You are all in my prayers and heart.

Fr. Tom

“God’s calling is a declaration of love. Your response is commitment, friendship, and love manifested in the gift of your own life as a definitive following and as a permanent sharing in His mission and in His consecrations.” –St. John Paul II